The Linux Foundation formed a new open source coalition with support from European transmission power systems provider RTE, Vanderbilt University, the European Network of Transmission System Operators, and the Electric Power Research Institute.
Called LF Energy, the coalition’s members seek to inform and expedite the energy transition, including the move to electric mobility as well as connected sensors and devices, while at the same time modernizing and protecting the grid, according to the Linux Foundation.
The coalition intends to focus on reusable components, open APIs and interfaces through project communities that the energy sector can adopt into platforms and solutions, the foundation says.
“LF Energy is an umbrella organization that will support and sustain multi-vendor collaboration and open source progress in the energy and electricity sectors to accelerate information and communication technologies (ICT) critical to balanced energy use and economic value,” says the Linux Foundation, which was founded in 2000 to accelerate open technology development and industry adoption.
Building on a common infrastructure should allow energy companies and solution providers to differentiate themselves at higher values while lowering costs and reducing integration complexity, according to the coalition members. “As a result, power system providers will be empowered to achieve time-to-market, scale, and efficiency much faster than ever before.”
LF Energy has four projects the Linux Foundation will host:
- OperatorFabric is a smart assistant for system operators for use in electricity, water, and other utility operations. The industrial strength, extensible, and flexible grid operations platform provides strategic management of information with a modular approach to applications, easy-to-add new functionality, and open APIs.
- Let’s Coordinate, an extensible solution of OperatorFabric, enables organizational power system coordination, visibility, communication, and workflow among distributed users across national and regional boundaries.
- The PowSyBl Framework of reusable modular components is a high-performance computing platform that enables grid modeling and simulation in a highly distributed energy resource environment from system expansion studies to planning and operation.
- The Resilient Information Architecture Platform for Smart Grid (RIAPS) provides core services for building effective, secure, and powerful distributed applications. Created at the Institute for Software-Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt University with support from North Carolina State University, Washington State University, and funding from the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, RIAPS enables smart grid control software to run reliably.
“Our complex, multifaceted global energy market is evolving quickly,” said Shuli Goodman, LF Energy’s executive director. “A collaborative open source approach to development of these technologies across companies, countries, and end users will provide the innovation needed to meet our respective goals in renewable energy, power electronics, electric mobility, and rapid digitalization for the energy sector overall.”